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The shipsheds of Sicilian Naxos, researches 1998–2001: a preliminary report1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

David Blackman  and
Maria Costanza Lentini
David Blackman
Affiliation:
British School at Athens/Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford
Maria Costanza Lentini
Affiliation:
Director of Excavations of Ancient Naxos
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Abstract

Remains discovered in excavations at Naxos in 1981–3, underlying structures belonging to the settlement which has been recognized as the mansio mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary, have now been firmly identified as the dockyard of the Greek city, the first Greek colony in Sicily and a Chalcidian foundation; an ally of Athens in the fifth century, it was therefore destroyed by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 403 BC. One rock-cut shipshed has been excavated for its surviving length (the lower end is lost under modern buildings); there is pottery evidence for the construction of its north wall in the mid-fifth century BC.

As with the installation of the democracy after the return of the Chalcidian exiles from Leontinoi, the work may have been inspired and encouraged by Athens. Installations of an earlier phase are also starting to appear. A selection of pottery evidence and of the remains of roof components (tiles and antefixes) is published.

The side walls of at least four shipsheds have been found just inside the city wall, and these respect the orientation of the fifth-century urban plan. The clear width of the shipshed excavated (5.45 m) confirms the evidence of other recent excavations: the previously held view that trireme shipsheds had a clear width of 5.75–6 m will have to be revised. The back 5–6 m of the shipshed do not seem to have been part of the slipway proper; possible explanations are suggested.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 98 , November 2003 , pp. 387 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2003

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Footnotes

1

The excavations have been funded by the Regione Siciliana Assessorato Beni Culturali e Ambientali and directed by the Archaeological Section of the Soprintendenza di Messina. Blackman acknowledges assistance from the BSA towards his travel costs. Nunzia Ollà, assisted by Roberta Salibra and Francesco Muscolino, helped in conducting the excavation. The preliminary arrangement of the materials from the levels of the classical period is by Sveva Savelli and Roberta Salibra. The site plans are by Leandro Lopes. The drawings of the pottery are by Concetta Marano. Our warm gratitude goes to diem all. We also wish to thank the staff of the Museum of Naxos: Sebastiano Testa Fralia for the logistic organization of the excavation site, Antonio Marano for die cleaning and restoration of the artefacts, and the surveyors Giuseppe Mercurio and Gaetano Cucinotta, topographer of die Soprintendenza di Messina, for topographical surveys. The final CAD work on plans and drawings was done by Giuseppe Mercurio. Alan Johnston made valuable comments on our final draft. Blackman will be publishing a separate article on the graffiti found in the excavation.

Abbreviations:

Corinth XV= A. Newhall Stillwell and J. L. Benson, Corinth XV, Part iii: The Potters' Quarter. The Pottery (Princeton, 1984).

Dupont = P. Dupont, ‘Archaic East Greek trade amphoras’, in R. M. Cook and P. Dupont, East Greek Pottery (London–New York, 1998), 142–90.

Meligunìs–Lipára II = L. Bernabò-Brea and M. Cavalier, Meligunìs-Lipára II. La necropoli greca e romana nella contrada Diana (Palermo, 1965).

Morel = J. P. Morel, Céramique campanienne: les formes (2nd edn., Rome, 1994).

Koehler = C. G. Koehler, ‘Corinthian A and B Transport Amphoras’ (Ph.D. diss., Princeton, 1979; UMI Ann Arbor, 1982).

Agora, xii = B. A. Sparkes, L. Talcott, Black and plain pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Athenian Agora, xii (Princeton, 1970).

Vandermersch = Ch. Vandermersch, Vins et amphores de Grande Grèce et de Sicile (IV–III s. avant J.-C.) (Naples, 1994).

References

2 Pelagatti, P., ‘Bilancio degli scavi a Naxos per l'VIII e il VII sec. a.C.’, ASA 59 (1981), 302–3Google Scholar.

3 Lentini, M. C., ‘Naxos IV. Nuovi documenti inscritti da Naxos di Sicilia’, BdA 48 (1988), 15 Google Scholar.

4 Blackman, D. J., ‘Naxos 1998: Trireme Shipsheds’, Kokalos, 43–4 (1997–1998), 471–8Google Scholar; id., in F. De Angelis, ‘Archaeology in Sicily 1996–2000’, AR 2000/1, 174, fig. 15.

5 Excavation of the other slipways, together with a project to roof them over, has been financed by the European Community and will be conducted in 2003.

6 Pelagatti, P., ‘Naxos II. Ricerche topografiche e scavi 1965–1970. Relazione preliminare’, BdA 57 (1972), 213–15Google Scholar, fig. 1.

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18 In general, cf. Morel 291 (type 4122c); Meligunìs–Lipára Il, 212; L. Costamagna and C. Sabbione, Una città della Magna Grecia: Locri Epizefiri, Reggio Calabria 1989, 135, fig. 183.

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22 Sicilian Naxos: Museo Archeologico, 450, 572–3, 1293, 2497, 422 n.; 2697, 423; Museo delle terracotte architettoniche, M 496, 499–502, 428

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27 Boardman, J., Early Greek Vase Painting (London, 1998), 51 Google Scholar, fig. 140 d.

28 The existence of shipsheds at Naxos is clear evidence of the existence of a small fleet of warships. That there was an archaic phase of the shipsheds is not yet clear (see above) and must be established by future excavation.